Allophones 101

Aspiration of plosives We have already highlighted how certain phonemes may be produced with an accompanying short puff of air in certain contexts. In particular, we considered the production of the voiceless alveolar plosive /t/ in the words top and stop (see What is an Allophone?) In…

De-voicing of plosives Consider how the voiced bilabial plosive /b/ is articulated in the word ball /bɔl/. You will probably need to say it aloud to both hear and feel the effect. Now try saying aloud the word nib /nɪb/, again focusing on the phoneme /b/. Do they…

Velarization – consonants We have noted elsewhere (see Approximants) that the lateral /l/ is formed by the tongue tip creating a complete closure at the alveolar ridge and the air stream being allowed to escape over the sides of the tongue laterally. This particular configuration appears in…

Dentalization of plosives We have seen (see Plosives) how the plosive sound /t/ is articulated with the tongue tip contacting the alveolar ridge, i.e. it is an alveolar plosive. Whilst this is the predominant place of articulation, consider the placement of the tongue tip in the word…

Velar shifting – consonants Consider the articulation of the voiceless velar plosive /k/ in the following sequence of words. keyed – curd – cooed /kid/ – /kɜd/ – /kud/ Say the sequence out aloud a few times to gain a feeling for what is happening at the point…

Retraction – consonants We have seen (Velar shifting) how the velar plosives /k/ and /g/ are retracted when they appear before a back vowel. An analogous retraction affects the sounds /t d n l/ when they occur before the alveolar approximant /r/. The relatively low tongue posture…

Glottalization – consonants We know that during the production of voiceless sounds the glottis is open: the vocal folds are held gently apart (abducted) and are relaxed (see Making Speech Sounds). This is also the state of the glottis for restful breathing. During the production of voiced…